As I was driving home Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to listen to liberal Alan Colmes' radio show and he was talking about Republicans questioning John "Flipper" Kerry's patriotism.

Exhibit A was a quote by Kerry's bank account wife, Theresa Heinz Kerry, to an interviewer where she complained about the mean Republicans degrading her husband's military service and "questioning his patriotism." Then she named names: Vice President Dick Cheney.

The offending attack was apparently Cheney's speech last month where he listed a series of weapons systems that John Kerry had opposed over his nearly two decades in the Senate.

As near as I could tell, Colmes appeared to endorse Heinz Kerry's contention that citing Sen. Kerry's Senate record as evidence that he is soft on defense is effectively questioning his patriotism.

So, following this train of thought -- that one's votes or actions in office are not relevant to how they would deal with defense issues as president -- shouldn't any criticism of Bush's conduct of the Afghanistan or Iraq wars also be considered "questioning his patriotism?"

Kerry's voting record is perhaps the best indicator of how he would conduct himself as president. To make all of his defense-related votes out-of-bounds is unacceptable. Kerry's record on defense probably isn't as bad as Republicans are making it out to be, but Kerry's response should be on issue -- not "you can't question me about that, I served in Vietnam."